Learning Disabled Juveniles & Miranda Rights - What Constitutes Voluntary, Knowing, & Intelligent Waiver

The specific factual issue addressed in this article is whether the federal waiver standards announced in Connelly require California courts, absent police coercion, to admit the confession of a learning disabled juvenile who waives Miranda rights yet lacks sufficient cognitive ability to understand the rights and consequences of waiving them

Learning Disabled Juveniles & Miranda Rights - What Constitutes Voluntary, Knowing, & Intelligent Waiver

The specific factual issue addressed in this article is whether the federal waiver standards announced in Connelly require California courts, absent police coercion, to admit the confession of a learning disabled juvenile who waives Miranda rights yet lacks sufficient cognitive ability to understand the rights and consequences of waiving them

Physical Electronics

Contains reports on three research projects

Companions of Stars: From Other Stars to Brown Dwarfs to Planets: The Discovery of the First Methane Brown Dwarf

The discovery of the first methane brown dwarf provides a framework for describing the important advances in both fundamental physics and astrophysics that are due to the study of companions of stars. I present a few highlights of the history of this subject along with details of the discovery of the brown dwarf Gliese 229B. The nature of companions of stars is discussed with an attempt to avoid biases induced by anthropocentric nomenclature. With the newer types of remote reconnaissance of nearby stars and their systems of companions, an exciting and perhaps even more profound set of contributions to science is within reach in the near future. This includes an exploration of the diversity of planets in the universe and perhaps soon the first solid evidence for biological activity outside our Solar System.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figure

Correlating Chemical Reaction and Mass Transport in Hydrogen-based Direct Reduction of Iron Oxide

Steelmaking contributes 8% to the total CO2 emissions globally, primarily due to coal-based iron ore reduction. Clean hydrogen-based ironmaking has variable performance because the dominant gas-solid reduction mechanism is set by the defects and pores inside the mm-nm sized oxide particles that change significantly as the reaction progresses. While these governing dynamics are essential to establish continuous flow of iron and its ores through reactors, the direct link between agglomeration and chemistry is still contested due to missing measurements. In this work, we directly measure the connection between chemistry and agglomeration in the smallest iron oxides relevant to magnetite ores. Using synthesized spherical 10-nm magnetite particles reacting in H2, we resolve the formation and consumption of w\"ustite (FeO) - the step most commonly attributed to agglomeration. Using X-ray scattering and microscopy, we resolve crystallographic anisotropy in the rate of the initial reaction, which becomes isotropic as the material sinters. Complementing with imaging, we demonstrate how the particles self-assemble, subsequently react and sinter into ~100x oblong grains. Our insights into how morphologically uniform iron oxide particles react and agglomerate H2 reduction enable future size-dependent models to effectively describe the multiscale iron ore reduction

Can Social Policies Improve Health? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 38 Randomized Trials.

Policy Points Social policies might not only improve economic well-being, but also health. Health policy experts have therefore advocated for investments in social policies both to improve population health and potentially reduce health system costs. Since the 1960s, a large number of social policies have been experimentally evaluated in the United States. Some of these experiments include health outcomes, providing a unique opportunity to inform evidence-based policymaking. Our comprehensive review and meta-analysis of these experiments find suggestive evidence of health benefits associated with investments in early life, income support, and health insurance interventions. However, most studies were underpowered to detect health outcomes. CONTEXT: Insurers and health care providers are investing heavily in nonmedical social interventions in an effort to improve health and potentially reduce health care costs. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of all known randomized social experiments in the United States that included health outcomes. We reviewed 5,880 papers, reports, and data sources, ultimately including 61 publications from 38 randomized social experiments. After synthesizing the main findings narratively, we conducted risk of bias analyses, power analyses, and random-effects meta-analyses where possible. Finally, we used multivariate regressions to determine which study characteristics were associated with statistically significant improvements in health outcomes. FINDINGS: The risk of bias was low in 17 studies, moderate in 11, and high in 33. Of the 451 parameter estimates reported, 77% were underpowered to detect health outcomes. Among adequately powered parameters, 49% demonstrated a significant health improvement, 44% had no effect on health, and 7% were associated with significant worsening of health. In meta-analyses, early life and education interventions were associated with a reduction in smoking (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.86-0.99). Income maintenance and health insurance interventions were associated with significant improvements in self-rated health (OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.06-1.36, and OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.10-1.73, respectively), whereas some welfare-to-work interventions had a negative impact on self-rated health (OR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.66-0.90). Housing and neighborhood trials had no effect on the outcomes included in the meta-analyses. A positive effect of the trial on its primary socioeconomic outcome was associated with higher odds of reporting health improvements. We found evidence of publication bias for studies with null findings. CONCLUSIONS: Early life, income, and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health. However, many of the included studies were underpowered to detect health effects and were at high or moderate risk of bias. Future social policy experiments should be better designed to measure the association between interventions and health outcomes